A Strange Twist of Fate
by ArmAndLeg
Summary: It's five years into the future, and Dib is depressed. Why? The one he loved left. Well, he gets a little surprise when the one who had left his life comes back. His life soon changes, all due to a few twists of fate. ZimDib. Chapter Six is here!
1. Prologue

The Zim Files 02

Arm: Well, it was only a matter of time. What am I talking about, you ask? Why, this new, Invader Zim fanfic, that's what.

Leg: Arm knew she couldn't just write one story for IZ at a time, she had to write at least two.

Arm: And it's all your damn fault, you are the one who told me to write this. Usual couple (Zim/Dib)! And this is only the prologue, but it's very angsty. The story shall reveal itself, in time…. And do not worry, just because we started this does not mean that I will leave BtR unfinished and alone, as a matter of fact, we're workin' on chapter nine as we speak. But enough talk, go ahead and read this! 

A Strange Twist of Fate: Prologue

Dib looked up at the image on his computer and sighed. Five years ago an alien came to Earth and turned his world upside down. Dib couldn't believe how quickly that time had passed by him. Zim, the alien, had left over a year ago, but instead of being jumping for joy that Zim was finally gone, Dib instantly missed him.

Dib never knew why Zim had left Earth. Dib figured it was because he kept on getting in Zim's way whenever the alien would try to take over the world. Deep down, however, Dib knew that that couldn't have been the case, for Zim was just as bull-headed as he was. The two of them never just "gave up," they fought harder to the bitter end because they both believed that quitting just wasn't an option. There was no way Zim would have left because of him after about four years of getting in the way. 

There were other possible reasons, however. Zim might have finally gotten sick of Earth, but whenever Dib told himself that was the reason, his common sense would disagree. If that were the true reason, Zim would have left a whole lot sooner. Dib vaguely remembered the transmission he had intercepted more than five years ago. Maybe his superiors made him came back for some reason or another.

That brought Dib to remembering the last day he had seen Zim. Zim looked angry about something, and there was a sense of sadness coming from him as well. Maybe Zim didn't want to leave Earth, but why would he? Zim hated Earth, and with a passion at that. What would have made Zim like it there on Earth in the first place?

Dib figured that Zim must have fell for someone on Earth, but who would that be? Zim never seemed to show any kind of an attraction for any of the humans. He did save Dib's life once, but that didn't prove anything. Zim had given him a good and believable reason as to why he did it, but Dib didn't want to think about it. When Zim had saved his life, he was about to jump off of Suicide Bridge out of depression. Dib was depressed for a lot of reasons; the most major reason being that he was finally sick of the way humanity treated him.

Dib still hated the way the damn planet treated him, but at least now he knew when to speak up about his opinions and when to remain quiet. He hated the way people continued to judge him without getting to know him, but he grew used to it by now. He still hated how his own family was like, ever since his mother died.

When Dib was going to jump off the bridge, Zim had just been passing by, walking his "dog," named Gir. Zim most likely heard him mutter something and recognized his voice. Dib didn't even hear Zim walk up behind him until Zim asked him why he was at Suicide Bridge. Dib had jumped slightly at Zim's voice, but he didn't hesitate to answer him.

"The same reason why many other kids before me came here: to throw myself over the rail of this damn bridge and die slowly at the bottom of the river," was Dib's own creative answer. Zim had asked him why and stated that Dib couldn't kill himself, not because he had too much to live for, but because Zim wanted to be the one to kill him.

Dib went and took that opportunity to ask Zim to kill him, but Zim refused. He said that he just couldn't kill anyone who wished to die like Dib had. Zim then walked away after that, and said back to him: "Besides, Dib, you still have to get me on an autopsy table like you promised me you would."

Dib had shook his head and realized that Zim had been right, at the time. Now, in the present, Dib knew the reasons why he should go on living were almost done. His family wouldn't really care if he died. The world wouldn't give a fuckin' damn if he went and killed himself; the world just pretended he didn't exist anyway. Why not make it so that the world didn't have to pretend that he wasn't there anymore? So that they didn't have to ignore his silent pleas to be noticed anymore?

And this time he knew Zim wouldn't be there to get in the way. Dib had enough of his life, and this time he knew he wouldn't be interrupted in ending it. His mind was made up, even more than the last time he decided to do this. 

Dib got up from his computer chair and looked at the time: 3:35 AM. Dib noted that he should have been asleep hours ago, and he knew that his father would definitely be asleep by now, so he knew he could sneak out without a problem. Dib walked out of his room and down the stairs as quickly as he could. He learned that the faster you went down the stairs, the _less_ noise you made than going down them slowly.

Dib asked himself _why_ he was going to do try and commit suicide. Was it because he really wanted to die? Or was it because he wanted to see what would happen, what suicide was like? Whatever the reason, he knew that neither of them was it. 

Deep inside, Dib knew he why he was going to do this. He needed to see something, but he was pretty sure it would never happen. There was just no possible way it could.

Dib made it to Suicide Bridge and sighed in defeat. Dib leaned on the same rail in the same spot he was at all that time ago. He was so angry with himself, for being so stupid. Dib couldn't believe that he actually hoped it would work. He knew Zim just wasn't going to suddenly pop out of nowhere just because he was at Suicide Bridge. His vision fogged up from tears of disappointment. He had done this for every night for nearly three months now, in hopes that Zim would somehow return. 

Dib wiped his eyes to get rid of the tears. He really missed Zim, and a whole lot more than he liked to admit. Zim really was his whole life, as corny as that sounded. Zim was probably the only alien he'd ever meet, and he probably be the only being to ever care enough about him to convince him not to do the unthinkable. Zim could have even been his friend, if they both were brave enough to look past their rivalry.

Dib looked down at his reflection in the river. His face looked different from what his face looked like the first time he came here, over a year ago. That time he looked very unhealthy and depressed, but now he looked healthy and just sad. Dib realized he should just go home, there was no way he was going to actually throw himself off the bridge, be it tonight or sometime in the distant future.

[Somewhere out in the middle of our solar system]

Zim sat in his Voot Runner and sighed. He couldn't wait to get back to Earth. Gir sat next to him, singing the Doom Song, but it didn't bother Zim at all. Zim was too distracted by his thoughts. 

Zim remembered when he found out that the Tallest wanted him back on Irk. He was happy at first, but then he realized that he would be away from Earth…and Dib. Despite what most Irken's thought, Zim really liked Earth. The only reason why the Tallest wanted him to come back to Irk was his increase in height, so that they could have him stationed at a different planet. 

Zim, of course, didn't find that out until he was at Irk, but when he did, he declined the offer. He stated that Earth was a hard planet to Invade, that it held its biggest weakness very well hidden, and that he wished to stay posted there. He conveniently left out the fact that he would never find the weakness to earth. Earth was too nice of a place to have under the Irken Empire's control. 

Zim had no idea as to how his opinions on Earth had changed. Maybe it was because he liked his life as a regular Earthanoid better than the life as an Invader. Then there was that very amusing rivalry between him and that Earthling, Dib. Zim missed Dib more than he expected to. Zim felt like a part of him was missing the moment he left Earth.

Zim remembered what Dib was like the last time he had seen him. He hadn't liked the how depressed Dib was, it was almost scary. Zim remembered that night about a week before he left to go back to Irk, when Dib was going to throw himself over the rail of Suicide Bridge. Zim could not believe that Dib had given up all hope and was going to end his life, and he didn't want Dib to do that. Which shocked him almost as much as it shocked Dib, but Zim came up with the reason that Dib believed. He simply told Dib not to go through with it after that and went home. Zim was beyond relieved when the next morning at skool Dib walked into the classroom. 

Zim was sapped out of his memories when Gir shrieked: "It's EARTH!" in his ear. Zim gazed at that planet in front of his Voot Runner. He smiled. It seemed as if he was finally home. Zim prepared for the landing and hoped that he would manage to land somewhere close to where his old home base on Earth was located. He piloted the Voot Runner as best he could while descending, dodging all the death bees the whole time. Zim instantly recognized the area and smiled even wider. He landed the Voot Runner near his home base and hoped that he didn't wake anyone up in the neighboring houses and he placed his Voot Runner back in the "attic" of his house. 

Once everything was done, Zim walked back into his home and stretched. He was exhausted from his long journey to Earth. He would enroll himself back into his old high skool tomorrow morning; he needed to get some sleep. Even though he knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep due to his excitement to be back on Earth.

"We're hoooome! Oh, look, the Scary Monkey Show is on!" Gir shouted in delight s he sat down in front of the TV set.

"I'm going to bed, Gir, don't destroy anything until tomorrow," Zim ordered as he went down into his lab. While sleeping, he had his first dream in months, since he had left Earth.

Arm: Ah, what a way to start a fic. We forgot the disclaimer…again… Well, Jhonen, and everyone who has rights to the awesome show known as Invader ZIM, we are only using your wonderful creations for fun, not profit. 

Leg: Now we have to get ready for our mom's second wedding… Oi, I so don't want to wear that dress…. Review? Please? I beg of you all to review! 


	2. And So They Meet Again

The Zim Files 02

Arm: Well, here's chapter one to ASToF! We got up really early to get typing this because it's really long. Really long.

Leg: Yes, and it takes us forever to type things up. We hope you all enjoy this! 

A Strange Twist of Fate: Chapter One: And So They Meet Again

Dib woke up the next morning, cranky as hell from the little to no sleep he had gotten the night before. He did his usual morning routine without thinking, putting on his signature trench coat and boots. Why couldn't today be a Saturday instead of a Wednesday? Dib asked himself as he moved his sickle-like hair out of his brown eyes.

Dib grabbed his book bag and lunch (he leaned to bag lunch a long time ago, after the organ-stealing ordeal with Zim while he was in sixth grade) and headed out the door without saying good bye. There was no telling if Professor Membrane was at the lab already. Gaz already left to go to skool without him, because he couldn't hear her games from his room.

Dib walked over to the skool, just as bored as ever. He didn't want to go into Mrs. Sunshine's class; she was just so damned _annoying_. She was nice, too nice. You could _kill_ someone in her class and get away with it, without even a yell from her. And what was up with her and the word "special"? She used it at least one in a sentence, and about two to three times in a paragraph.

Dib sat down in his usual seat and ignored the girls talking about him in the corner. Those bitches always talked about him. He began doing his homework for the next week and waited for Mrs. Sunshine to walk into the room. He was pegged with a few paper balls, but he chose to ignore the person who threw them; this was a daily thing, and he was used to it. He just hoped that Mrs. Sunshine would get there soon and tell those girls to sit back in their seats.

"Good morning, class. Today we happen to have a very special surprise! We have a special new student!" Mrs. Sunshine said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Oh, shut up, Dib thought to himself. Wait a minute, a new student? Dib asked in his mind as he looked up from his work. He felt his jaw hit the ground.

"His name is Zim," she continued. Zim looked bored, his arms crossed, his eyes diverted to the ground in annoyance. He waited for her to say that he could sit down in any desk. He didn't want to look up from the ground because he knew he wouldn't see anyone he knew personally. He watched all the students in this class walk in, and he didn't see anyone of them he knew, unless a few walked in before he got there. 

"Go ahead and take a seat, Zim," Mrs. Sunshine said, snapping him out of his thoughts. Zim did as he told, looking up from the ground briefly as he walked to the only empty desk, not too far from the back. He thought he recognized someone he didn't see walk in, but he couldn't tell if it really was him. 

Dib shook his head. He could not believe it, he just could not believe it. Zim was back! Zim came back to Earth! Dib wanted to take a second look at Zim, just to see if he wasn't imagining it, but Zim sat down somewhere behind him. Dib decided he'd have to wait for lunch to see him again. He was about to fall asleep when a paper ball hit him in the back of his head and landed next to him.

Dib silently cursed at the individual who threw the ball at him. It was most likely one of those girls from the back. He turned around and glared at them for a bit before going back to catching up the sleep he had lost last night.

Zim smiled to himself. It worked! He was the one who threw the paper ball at Dib, but he did it just to get him to turn around so that he could see if it was Dib. He was ecstatic that somehow he ended up in the same class as Dib, yet again. He noticed that Dib looked healthier than the last time he had seen him. He had gained back all that weight he had lost when he was depressed, but he still looked as tired as he did back then. 

Zim might have been happy, but his new teacher got on his nerves. Special this and special that, she was just plain annoying! Oh well, he couldn't wait for lunch. Maybe then he could finally get to talk to Dib. He was just waiting for Dib to start ranting about how he was an alien to his class, just like he had done five years ago when they first met.

Zim was glad to be back, and this time he was going to do things differently. He wasn't going to start any fights or chases between him and Dib, at least, not today. He was going to try to be friends with him, this once. He was going to make up for lost time.

Finally the lunch bell rang and the students walked out of the classroom. Zim got out of his seat last, glad that Mrs. Sunshine had finally been stopped. She may be annoying, but he knew that no one was more annoying than Ms. Bitters was. 

Zim walked in line and hoped that whatever was given to him was edible. Cafeteria food was always unpredictable, and it was one of the few things he didn't miss while he was away. Zim walked out of the line after he paid for his lunch and looked around the lunchroom. He noticed somethings never changed, like Gaz and Dib sitting together at lunch. Zim held his breath and hoped that he would be able to sit with them.

"Hey! The new kid! Come over here and sit with us!" a girl shouted at him. Zim recognized her as the black girl sitting behind Dib. He walked over to the table she was sitting at.

"We saw what you did to Dib. Man, do you have good aim," another girl said to him. This was the girl who sat next to the black one in his class. She was white.

"Thanks…I guess," Zim said as he sat down. "So, what are your names?" Zim asked. He figured he might as well get to know them since it seemed like he was going to be sitting there.

"Carol," the white girl said. "And this is my bestfriend, Crystal. We already know your name, Zim," Carol said as Zim opened his mouth to state his name.

"Oh," was all that Zim could manage after that. He glanced over at Dib and Gaz.

"We wanted to know if you wanted to be apart of our Dib-bashing club," Crystal stated, getting right down to business.

"Yeah, you would be a great member," Carol added.

"I don't know. You see, Dib and I know each other from somewhere else, we're kind of rivals already. It wouldn't be as fun if I were apart of you…club," Zim told them.

"I kinda figured you two knew each other," Crystal said. "His jaw kind of dropped to the ground when he saw you, like he was shocked to see you."

"I didn't notice, I was already falling asleep," Carol put in. "Once Mrs. Sunshine starts talking, I'm completely out of it," Carol added.

"I know what you mean. She's so damned annoying as well. I mean, what is it with her and the word 'special'?" Zim asked. "Look, if you don't mind, I have to catch up on old times," Zim said as he eyed Dib walking towards a trashcan to throw out his lunch.

"Oh, sure, no problem, Zim," Carol stated. "Go ahead and catch up."

"We'll be watching!" Crystal called out to him as he went to the trashcan to throw out his untouched lunch. 

Zim walked up behind Dib and said, "Hello, Dib, did you miss me?" Zim asked in a slightly mocking tone.

Dib's shoulders tensed at Zim's voice. "No, not at all, _alien_, why would I miss you?" Dib asked as he turned around to face Zim.

"Well, well, well, you're still saying all that paranormal shit," Zim noted. "I'm not surprised. When was the last time you saw Big Foot? I haven't heard from him in a while," Zim said, though he didn't want to. He was all saying this without thinking.

The whole student body shook with laughter. "Shut up, Zim, you are the _last_ person who should talk. How did you get back to Earth anyway? Did you runaway or something?" Dib asked.

"I went to my grandparents for the past year, Dib. My parents had to work something out," Zim lied.

"Sure, whatever, _Zim_. But let me remind you, I _will_ prove to the world that you're an alien, and you will be on an autopsy table," Dib said.

"Yeah, sure, they're all empty threats," Zim stated as he walked away. Well, so much for trying to start things over, Zim just blew that one. Zim silently berated himself about it, but at least he felt whole again.

Dib smiled cynically to himself. Well, he did want Zim back, did he not? Next time he'd have to be careful as to what he wished for. Though, he had to admit that was fun. He really missed those little fights between him and Zim.

"Oh no, they're at it again," Gaz whispered to herself as she played her new game for her GameSlave Advanced. She had sincerely loved the peace and quiet from her brother since Zim left, and now he was back. Damn him. 

Carol and Crystal were impressed. Zim was the only person ever to get that kind of reaction out of Dib. No one in the whole skool could have gotten insulted by Dib like that, no matter how hard they tried. The two of them, up until that point, believed that Dib didn't speak to anyone but his sister. They figured that Zim and Dib must have had the biggest rivalry known to man. But there was something else they noticed: Zim and Dib didn't say those things with the kind of hatred you expect from rivals, and they didn't look like they despised each other, but really liked each other.

The two girls both seemed to know more about our heroes than they knew about themselves at the time….

Zim walked out of the lunchroom to get his things for his afternoon classes. He couldn't believe how easy it was for him to say those things to Dib. He didn't want to, and he figured his tone kind of gave it away, because Dib didn't say things as hateful as he used to.

"So why are you back, Zim?" Dib asked from behind him.

Zim slightly jumped at Dib's voice. "Don't do that!" Zim shouted at him. "And why do you want to know?" Zim asked as he narrowed his eyes.

Dib smiled at that reaction. "I simply want to know what you've been up to the past year or so. Were you out taking over different worlds, perhaps? Or did you need a vacation from trying to take over this world?" Dib asked sarcastically. 

"Neither," Zim answered. "And you know what, it's none of your business. If I want to tell you what I was up to in the past year, I'll tell you, but only if I feel like it," Zim told him with hesitation. 

"You haven't changed at all," Dib said under his breath.

"How would you know? The last six months before I left, you were too depressed to care about anything. I could have changed a lot," Zim said.

"Shut up, I don't want to be reminded of that," Dib said suddenly.

"Fine then, but I'll just say this: I didn't like it when you were like that," Zim admitted. 

"Why are we suddenly getting along?" Dib asked. "I mean, usually by now we're ready to rip each other's throats out," Dib continued.

"I don't know, but if you don't want to get along, I can change that, pathetic human," Zim stated.

"You bag of space meat," Dib replied automatically.

"I don't want to get into petty name calling contests now, Dib, I'll be late for class," Zim said as he closed his locker finally and began to walk away.

Dib followed him. "What, afraid you'd _lose_?" Dib asked.

"No, it's just that I don't have the time or the patience to deal with it," Zim replied.

"You were the one who started it!" Dib pointed out. "Besides, time and patience never mattered to you before," Dib said.

"Like I said, I've changed, you just haven't noticed until now. But, I want to know, why didn't you try and kill yourself once I was gone?" Zim asked.

Dib remained silent. "Because...because I just didn't, Zim," Dib answered weakly. If only he knew how many times he almost did kill himself while he was away.

"Did you tell anyone about what you almost did to yourself?" Zim asked.

"No…. You're the only one who knows about it," Dib answered quietly. "And I didn't thank you for knocking some sense into me," Dib began.

"Don't thank me just yet, Dib," Zim stated.

"Why shouldn't I? You saved my life, Zim, I owe you at least a thanks," Dib told him.

"Look, Dib, you don't owe me anything. I just did what I felt was right, that doesn't mean you should get all sappy on my ass," Zim told him as they walked into the class. Zim shut up and sat down in his desk and (un)happily waited for Mrs. Sunshine to start talking.

Dib watched him sit down before sitting in his own seat. Zim really did change like he said, and Dib knew that he himself had changed too. Before Zim had left, he had been egotistical, bent on world domination, and enslaving the human race. Now, none of those things really were Zim. Dib had no idea why that was, but he enjoyed the change. And Zim's appearance changed as well, making him more adorable. Yes, Zim was adorable, and Dib didn't care if thought that way about his rival.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Before, Dib would've never have even admitted it to himself. Even as a kid he knew he thought of Zim differently, and in a way he would have killed himself (if he had admitted it to himself). It didn't make any sense. How could he, a paranormal-investigator-to-be, fall for the one thing that he, his whole life, had been searching for?

Dib shook his head as Mrs. Sunshine continued talking about the importance of plastic. He placed his elbow on the desk and leaned his head against his hand in a bored fashion. When does she stop? Dib asked himself, unaware of the people staring at him.

Carol and Crystal were thinking of their usual ways of getting on Dib's nerves. They liked picking on him, mostly because they thought it was the "cool" thing to do. Dib was picked on by everyone, and only because he was always going on about aliens, ghosts, and seeing Big Foot in his garage. And they didn't want to be left out of it, because they would be deemed as un-cool.

But Carol also had Zim on her mind. She saw him talk to Dib in the halls. Why would he talk to his once biggest rivals like they were bestfriends? She knew that the two must have shared something between that caused them to understand each other, but why would they act like friends?

Zim watched Dib as well, but as a way to keep himself from being bored. He had really missed "studying" Dib in the past year he was away from Earth. He smiled as he continued to think of Dib. Dib was perfectly all right; he hadn't done anything to himself while he was gone. He hoped he and Dib would become friends (or something close to what one would call friendship), he was very lonely while he was back on Irk, even if Gir was with him.

Zim believed that he needed no one, when he was younger, but he proved himself wrong when the Tallest took Gir from him and gave him a SIR unit. SIR just wasn't the same as Gir, Zim had realized, because a SIR was just bland, it had no personality. It didn't provide entertainment like Gir did, either, but the point was that Zim needed Gir because he was like a friend to him by then.

Now Zim realized he needed companionship to keep from going crazy. He figured he might as well make some friends, starting with Dib. Dib was someone he always knew he could be friends with, if they stopped trying to kill each other. He did like those two girls, Carol and Crystal, they seemed to be really cool, but he didn't like how they made fun of Dib, even if he himself had done so in the past. 

Zim took out a notebook. He liked to write fictional accounts about himself and Dib, actually getting along and being nice to one another. He knew they could get along, but they had to keep up traditional teasing and mind games. Zim looked outside for a little while, and noticed it looked like rain. Zim shivered at that, he didn't want to walk home in a storm, especially since he hadn't bathed in paste.

Zim sighed as he began to write. His spelling and grammar were still considerably bad, but he was improving with every story he wrote or read. He was still getting used to the English language, and after all, it was one of the hardest languages to learn. This story was much like his others: it took place after he had stopped Dib from jumping off of Suicide Bridge, and he and Dib became friends not too long after that. 

Zim remembered what his only friend he had made of Irk, Jazz, had told him after he had read one of Zim's stories, how he must have really cared for Dib. Zim knew that Jazz only said thing like that unless he was certain it was true. Jazz was really like a big brother to him, especially since Jazz was taller than him, even if had grown two feet of so during his time on Earth. Zim hadn't tried to deny it. So what if he cared for his rival? You cared for whomever you wanted to, and that was just the way it was. 

But there was something else Jazz had said, a something else that made Zim really think. Jazz had said that he didn't only care for Dib, but that he liked or even _loved_ him. Zim had looked up at Jazz almost like he was crazy, but he eventually let it sink in. That was why Zim made up his mind to go back to Earth. Jazz had helped him understand his emotional attachment for the planet. 

Zim looked back outside. It was drizzling right then, and he looked at the clock. It was 2:35, and Zim silently hoped that the rain would clear up before skool ended. He should have watched the Weather Channel like he usually did. If he had, he would have bathed in paste and he wouldn't have to worry about it. Zim looked back over at Dib, who seemed to be asleep.

Zim knew he liked the human, there was no questioning that. It was the question he loved Dib that he was still trying to figure out. He told himself he would only know in time.

Dib looked out the window himself. He noticed that it was raining relatively hard. He glanced behind himself at Zim. Zim looked like he was slightly nervous, and Dib knew that Zim must have forgotten to go whatever protected him from water. He felt sorry for Zim, it was his first day back, and he would have to walk home in the rain. A part of him yelled at himself for feeling sorry, but Dib ignored it.

Dib had brought an umbrella with him, he knew about the possibility of rain because of his sister. Gaz always seemed to know when it was going to rain. It was one of her weird talents, like being able to balance anything possible, even bowling balls.

Dib told himself that he would help Zim out, just this once. It wasn't very sportsman-like to watch his rival go defenseless like that. He just hoped that Zim would take his offer of help. Zim was usually stubborn when it came to accepting help from his enemies. Plus, it would help him get to know why Zim was back on Earth.

Dib and Zim's thoughts were cut short as the end-of-skool bell rang. Everyone got out of their desks and almost killed one another to get out. Zim and Dib smartly waited for everyone to get out of the classroom before getting out of their desks. 

"I _hate_ the rain," Zim hissed as he picked up his books and homework out of his locker.

"I brought an umbrella if you don't mind sharing with me, Zim," Dib forced himself to say as he placed his binder in locker, which was next to Zim's.

Zim looked at Dib strangely before shaking his head. "Why would you want to help me, the alien from outer space?" Zim asked as he walked up to Dib. "You're not trying to capture me, are you?"

"No, of course not Zim, I don't stoop _that_ low. I just figured that you didn't protect yourself from water today. And since I feel like being a nice guy to you for right now, I figured that sharing my umbrella would suffice," Dib explained.

Zim studied Dib's face for about five seconds before making up his mind. "All right, fine, but no splashing me 'by accident,' okay?" Zim ordered.

"Fine, fine, I wasn't going to anyway," Dib said as they walked out of the skool. Dib opened up his umbrella and Zim stayed under the umbrella as best he could without getting wet. In order to do that, Zim had to be very close to Dib, but he didn't mind it, and Dib didn't seem to care.

"Stupid rain…" Zim muttered as he dodged yet another droplet of water coming off of the umbrella.

"It must suck to be hurt by water, Zim," Dib stated. He moved closer to Zim to help him stay away from the water dripping off his umbrella. 

Zim looked up at Dib. "Yes, it does…. Water was one of the few things I didn't miss while I was away from Earth," Zim told him. He liked the sudden closeness he was feeling from Dib, like they were suddenly bestfriends.

Dib had to control himself from getting lost in Zim's eyes. "Am I apart of those few things, Zim?" Dib asked. He didn't know why he had asked that; he already knew the answer.

Zim looked away from Dib and looked down at the ground, apparently deep in thought. He was wondering if he should tell Dib why he came back to Earth in the first place. "No, you aren't among those things," Zim finally answered. "I actually missed you and your annoying rants. I thought of you nearly everyday, you and this planet. In all reality, Dib, I like Earth more than I like my own planet," Zim stated as he looked back at Dib.

Dib blinked at Zim before turning away from him. Why…why did Zim tell him that? Zim really missed _him_? And Zim liked Earth even more than he liked his own home planet? Dib could barely believe it. "So you did runaway…" Dib muttered to himself.

"No, actually, I didn't," Zim told him. "I just used my brain to get back here. The Tallest let me choose the planet I wanted to invade, so I chose Earth, but this time I won't try to invade it," Zim explained. 

"You're…not going to try and take over the world?" Dib asked as he looked back over at Zim.

"Not anymore, Earth is my home now," Zim stated. He wondered why he was telling Dib all this, he usually didn't trust the human like this. 

"You said you missed me, why?" Dib asked. "I mean, why did you miss me? I'm your fricken rival, Zim, you were supposed to be happy that you would never see me again!" Dib told him.

"I missed you for the same reasons I told you not to kill yourself, the ones that I kept from you," Zim answered as he looked down at the ground.

"Well, I missed you, too, Zim. It was just…weird…without you here," Dib admitted. "I didn't feel right without you," Dib added.

"Same here," Zim stated. He noticed that it had stopped raining. "Well, I'll see you around, Dib," Zim said quietly as he got out from under the umbrella.

"Bye, Zim," Dib said as he folded up the umbrella and walked off in a different direction. He knew he was going to have one hell of an entry for his journal tonight.

Zim walked into his house, smiling contentedly to himself. Today was one hell of a day. Maybe his "mission" of starting things over with Dib would go easier than he thought….

Arm: ::nurses her wrist:: I told you all it was long. Well, please review! We worked hard on getting this typed up! And now I have to go work on some other things I want to get typed up before we leave for Ohio. I hope you all enjoyed this! Please tell me you did.

Leg: Do as she said, and if you didn't, well, tell her anyway, it'll make her feel like she should improve.

Arm: Oh, shut up. You're typing up the next thing.

Leg: Fine then.


	3. Crash

ASToF

Arm: Hey, look, it's chapter two! And major Dib-angst! It has return! Yay!

Leg: You know the phrase "You hurt the ones you love," don't you? Well, connect Arm to that statement. Now you suddenly understand why we pick on Dib so much. 

Arm: ::smiles:: Well, what can I say? He's just so easy to manipulate! 

Leg: ::sighs:: Nevermind… Go ahead and read, people!

A Strange Twist of Fate: Chapter Two: Untitled.

Zim finished up reporting back to the Tallest that he was back on Earth. They believed everything he told them, the fools. If only they new that he was going to sit there and do nothing. Jazz had spoken to him too, and he knew what Zim's true intentions on Earth were. Zim didn't want to be apart of the Irken Army anymore. He had realized that taking over different planets and using them for their own pleasures without thinking about the original inhabitants at all was wrong, and he wanted no part in it.

Zim sighed. He knew the Tallest only gave a damn about him now because he had grown remarkably during his time on Earth. He was one of the tallest Irkens in the universe now, all because of some mysterious growth spurt that had struck him about two years ago. He realized that height was also a stupid way to judge people, so was race and physical differences. Both Irk and Earth judged people like that, but Earth was different about it. Earthen life was easier, like the fact you weren't assigned a job the second you were born, but you prepared for the job you wanted through skool. 

Earth had more freedom than Irk did, that was the main reason why he liked the planet so much. You could almost do whatever the hell you wanted on Earth, and Zim really liked that. It also had a lot of rules, but they weren't as outrageous as the ones on Irk. And the fact that the rulers on Irk were determined by their height sucked. What did tall have to do with anything anyway?

Zim shook his head. He could wonder about that later, right now all he wanted to do was think about Dib. How could they go from hating each other to being bestfriends like that? That was something strange, but Zim didn't care. They were so close to one another underneath that umbrella and Dib didn't object to it at all. It was almost as if Dib had enjoyed it as much as he did. 

Zim didn't know what came over him, but he felt as if he could trust Dib much like he trusted Jazz. Maybe they could finally become friends, like he wanted. Zim also could not believe that Dib had missed him as well. Maybe Dib cared about him almost as much as he cared about him. Who knows, becoming Dib's friend will be hard, especially since he didn't have much practice in the field of friendship. 

Dib looked up at the ceiling of his room, deep in thought as he lay on his bed. So, Zim had missed him while he was gone? Dib would have thought that would have been impossible if he hadn't missed Zim as well. But why did he miss Zim? And why did Zim miss him? They were rivals! They were supposed to be happy that they hadn't seen each other, not missing one another. 

Sighing, Dib got up and went to grab his journal. He hadn't written in the damn thing in over two months. Dib reread the first entry, and read up until the last one. Everything seemed to mention Zim in someway. There was a pause in a few entries, like he wanted to write something, but he couldn't. Like he knew something, but be just didn't know what it was. His heart told him it had something to do with Zim. Like he was really obsessed with Zim, and in possibly more ways than one.

He didn't understand it. How come he can't even write down what he really thought of Zim? All he wrote of Zim was that he hated him, but that, in itself, was a lie. Dib never really hated Zim; he just hated what Zim had planned to do or had done. Dib knew that he could never truly hate Zim, even right from the beginning that September morning when Dib first met him.

Dib hated the fact that he couldn't hate Zim back then, and continued to do so up until eighth grade. Dib had then realized that it was a good thing that he didn't really hate Zim. Hate, like love, was a consuming emotion. It needed your whole body and soul to feel it strongly, and it took a lot of your energy. There was a difference between the two emotions, however. Hate you had some kind of control over, but love, love just struck you at anytime and place, completely knocking you out of your normal world into one of confusion. (Arm: Damn, where did that come from? That's way too deep, even coming from us…)

Dib was always told that it didn't matter how you fell for, as long as _you_ accepted it in the end. But could he accept the truth? Could he actually say, just to himself and no one else, that he believed he fell for the one person who used to be the bane of his existence? No, not yet was the answer he expected, but he didn't find the answer within himself. He would have to do some more soul searching, it seemed.

But there was another question, one that even Dib himself did not know about. It was _if_ he wanted to say it to himself, if he could say it to himself without feeling ashamed to feel it. Was Dib ready to admit that he could possibly love Zim? Did Dib want to open his eyes to the truth?

Dib shook his head. He had to tell himself the truth sooner or later, or he'd go crazy. He believed he could say it to himself without feeling ashamed. No, he didn't just believe, he _knew_ he could do it, and right now, if he wanted to open his eyes to the truth. "I, Dib Membrane, love Zim," Dib whispered to himself as he wrote it in his journal, just to prove it to himself he could actually do it. He smiled to himself, and realized that was easier to admit than he thought.

Zim sighed contentedly. He was back on Earth, he might be able to be Dib's friend, and Gir was actually sitting still and not getting in the way. Could life get any better? He asked himself as he leaned back in his chair. He just hoped that no one else wanted to invade Earth and realize he wasn't doing his job. He remembered the last time someone else tried taking Earth from him.

Zim's only fear right now was being discovered by the Tallest that he wasn't doing his job. He knew they could believe everything and anything he would say, but he had to be careful. IF he sat there too long on the planet without having any "progress," the Tallest would catch on. He had to somehow pretend to look for Earth's weakness, while keeping the Armada from coming. The last thing he needed was having the Earth invaded when he told himself he wasn't going to do so.

Zim imagined the look of betrayal Dib would give him if that had happened. The last thing he would need after that was to have Dib hate his existence. Zim thought out the whole ordeal, and hoped that it would never happen. It would be the worst thing to ever happen to him, especially since it would automatically shatter the delicate start of a friendship he and Dib had.

Zim knew though that he wanted to be more than friends with Dib, deep down. He was having a hard time saying it to himself, though. It was almost like his whole existence wanted to keep it hidden away. Maybe it was because it was the Law of the Invaders not to fall for anyone on the planet they were invading, and some part of him still wanted to follow the rules of the Irken Army.

All of his training and tests for planetary take over remained with him, even if he didn't want it to. To an Invader, your training is the hardest thing to forget, and you are sworn to abide by the rules without exceptions. Zim remembered when he had watched a public execution of an Invader that was shorter than he at the time was because he had broken the most important rule to the Invaders: which was not to lie to the Tallest. Which was another reason why he hoped that the Tallest would never find out about his true intentions for being back on Earth; they would hunt him down and kill him if they did. 

Zim shivered at that. The way they killed up was more horrible than any of the ways humans killed their worst criminals. And if he were to be executed on Earth, the humans would take his body and do horrible things to it once the Tallest was done with it. He didn't want his body to be violated like that when he wasn't alive. Zim just hoped that the Tallest would never find out about his true intentions. 

Zim looked at the time and decided to go to bed. He was going to have to wake up early to go to skool. He hoped that Mrs. Sunshine would be less cheerful, somehow.

Dib looked outside to see if Gaz would be home soon. She'd been at her boyfriend's house for a long time. He was starting to worry. She was never at Rick's house this long. Dib walked away from the window and slipped into bed. He would get on her case about it tomorrow when he saw her like a normal big brother would. 

Dib woke up later that night because the phone began to ring. Of course, he didn't know that was the reason he had woken up until the phone had rung for a second time. He got up grouchily and headed for the phone, silently cursing the individual for calling his house so late at night.

"Hello, Membrane residence, Dib speaking," Dib said as he yawned. 

"Dib? Dib, you're never going to kill me for telling you this, but--" a voice said rather feverishly.

"Rick?" Dib interrupted. "Slow down man, I can't understand you," Dib ordered as he suppressed a yawn.

"Dib, Gaz walked home over two hours ago, and got hit by a car," Rick stated, his voice cracking with tears just slightly.

Dib shook his head as if to keep the words away from his ears. "What?" Dib asked finally. He could feel his grip loosen around the phone.

"Look, I know you're tired. Just get over to the hospital as fast as you can, all right? I'll explain everything when you get here. And don't other getting your father, he's already here," Rick stated before he hung up the phone. 

Dib mumbled something before putting the phone back in its cradle. He was feeling very…very…he didn't know what he was feeling. It was as if he wasn't feeling anything at all, like he was in a state of shock.

Dib put on a pair of pants, slipped into his trench coat, and put on his boots. He grabbed his car keys, and the weight of Rick's words finally hit him. "Oh god, let her be alright," Dib mumbled as he jumped into his car. He couldn't believe it, his sister was hit by a car, and by the way Rick's voice was cracking over the phone, it was pretty bad.

Dib calmly drove his car over to the hospital. He wondered why Gaz just didn't get a ride home from Rick like she normally did. He silently cursed the driver who had hit his sister. He hoped that she would be all right. His eyes suddenly grew wide as he felt like he needed to remember something. He shut his eyes when he made it to a red light and tried to focus his thoughts.

Memories of when he was little were vague, like when his mother died. He had gotten amnesia due to the same accident that had killed his mother. He was never able to recall the accident, until now. Before he was only able to remember flashes of light and indistinguishable voices. Now he was suddenly able to remember everything.

Dib pulled the car into the parking lot of the hospital and killed the engine. He needed to relax. The memory of the accident came back to him all too quickly. He shut his eyes again and remembered it all in crystal clear detail.

It was a cold, winter day and his mother was driving him home from pre-skool. They were driving down one of the more dangerous roads in his neighborhood, and she was explaining that he should be wearing his seatbelt. She had turned her head to look at him, only for a second to watch him put on his seatbelt, and that was all it took for someone to t-bone them. He remembered the sound of metal crushing metal ringing in his ears as his mother screamed in pain, and then died. The next thing he knew was that he slammed into the passenger side door and was knocked out. 

He remembered all the voices clearly. He had woken up in the ambulance, and the paramedics had asked him a bunch of questions that he couldn't answer for the life of him. He couldn't remember the crash or anything else that had happened before that. The only thing he had remembered was his name, his sister's name, and who his father was. The doctors had explained to his father how lucky he had been to be still alive.

Dib shook his head. That was the only time he had ever saw his father cry. His father had never been that depressed until his mother died. He hoped that his sister would _not_ be a repeat of his mother. He got out of the car and headed for the entrance of the hospital.

Rick had met up with him the second he walked into the hospital. Rick's green eyes were rimmed with tears and his black hair was messy due to his running his hands through his hair. To say the least, he looked awful.

"How bad is she, Rick?" Dib asked him as he looked at him.

Rick looked down at the ground and bit his lip. "The doctors say she has a very slim chance of making it through the night, Dib," Rick replied with difficulty. Suddenly Rick broke down; he just suddenly collapsed into the nearest chair in a wave of tears. "I should have driven her home. This woulda never happened if I had driven her home. I'm so sorry, Dib," Rick mumbled as he burst into a new waves of tears.

Dib sat down in the seat next to him. "Rick, it's not your fault. You didn't know that this would happen," Dib told him, trying to fight off his own tears.

Rick looked up at Dib. "You're not…mad at me?" Rick asked.

"No, no, of course not. I'm pissed at the person who didn't pay attention to where he was going and hit my sister," Dib explained.

Rick sat up in his chair. "Well, you're going to be pissed at your father if that's the case," Rick told him, hate now very evident in his voice and eyes.

Dib looked at Rick as if he was crazy. Then what Rick had said finally hit his half-working brain. "My _father_ was the one who _hit_ my _sister_?!" Dib asked in major shock.

Rick looked over at Dib and noticed how ticked he truly was. He had never seen Dib look the angry before. "Yeah, you're father. He hit her straight on," Rick said with malice very evident in his voice. 

"Where is my father?" Dib asked Rick in a deadly voice.

"He was in Gaz's room, the last I saw him. Here, I'll show you the way there," Rick offered as he walked down the hall. They walked in silence. Dib just could not believe that his own father was the one who had hit his sister. "Here you are," Rick said as he pointed to Gaz's room.

Dib walked into the room and instantly forgot about being angry with his father. "Gaz," Dib whispered as he walked up to her. "Oh, god, Gaz, oh man, look at you," Dib continued to whisper as he grabbed her hand.

"Dib?" Gaz asked shakily. 

"Yeah, it's me Gaz. Rick told me what happened. I'm so sorry Gaz," Dib stated, tearing up as he squeezed her hand.

"Dib, I'm going to live through this, even if it kills me," Gaz said in a weak voice.

"I know you will, Gaz," Dib said with a small smile.

"And if you touch my games, you will die," she threatened.

"I completely understand, Gaz," Dib told her. He wondered if Gaz had any idea that her chanced of living were slim to none. He didn't have the heart to tell her that, though. "I'm going to go talk to dad, okay?" Dib asked as he let go of her hand. "Don't you dare go dying on me while I'm away," Dib ordered.

"I won't, Dib," Gaz told him as she closed her eyes. It was just too much work for her to stay awake anymore, she needed to rest.

Dib left his sister and went to search for his father. He walked out of Gaz's room and ran into a doctor. "Excuse me, but did Professor Membrane walk by here?" he asked politely.

"Yeah, he went outside. He said he needed a smoke," the doctor replied. "Why do you want to speak to him?" the doctor asked out of curiosity.

"I'm his son," Dib replied before heading outside the doors. He looked around and spotted his father leaning up against a pole, a cigarette in his hand. "Dad!" Dib shouted at his father. He ran over to him and glared at his father for all he was worth.

"Dib. Look, I'm sorry about your sister. I-I-I just didn't see here! I didn't know she was there until it was too late! I tried to stop!" Membrane protested weakly under Dib's glare. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? _Sorry?!_ Do you think that saying 'sorry' is going to excuse you from being a reckless driver and _killing_ your own daughter? Do you dad? Because if you do, let me tell you that it will _not_ cut it. I will never forgive you for what you have done to Gaz, _ever_. Don't you even care about her? She sitting there, in her room, dying as we speak! Shouldn't you be in there, trying to say 'sorry' just like you told me?" Dib asked angrily. He could feel his hands ball into fists, and he so wanted to punch his father.

"I already poured my heart out, saying sorry to her, Dib! I can't do anything else for her now!" Membrane yelled back at him.

"My ass, dad! You're a _scientist_! You could at least be trying to help the doctors! Damnit dad, don't you even feel guilty for hitting your own damn daughter?" Dib asked.

"Of course I feel guilty! That's why I'm smoking my first cigarette in seventeen years, Dib!" Membrane said.

Rick ran up besides Dib, he could see that Dib was going to get ready to punch his father, so he held Dib's arm down. "I hate to interrupt, but the doctor wants to see you both," Rick said in a pained voice.

Dib glared at his father for one last time before turning away from him. He followed Rick and glared at the ground. He knew his father was just as upset as he was about all this, but he was just asking for that.

"Membrane, Dib, we're sorry to inform you that young Gaz Membrane has died. We did all that we could to save her, but our efforts just weren't enough. Once again, we're very sorry," the doctor said in a grave voice.

Dib felt his knees get very weak. He sunk down onto the floor and shook his head as he cried. His only sister was gone for good. He just wanted to take up, to be lifted up from his own personal hell. His father bent down and lightly touched Dib's arm, but Dib moved out from underneath his father's grip. He wanted nothing to do with his father.

Dib then got off the floor, said good night to everyone, and walked numbly to his car. He opened the driver side door and got in, and cried the whole way home. He wasn't even going to get up and go to skool tomorrow. There was just no way he could face the student body after this.

Dib hoped that his father would leave him alone and not even other talking to him. As far as he was concerned, he never wanted to speak to his father again, nor did he want to see him. Dib slammed the car door shut and walked into his house, slamming the front door to it as well. He walked numbly to his room, collapsed on his bed, and cried himself to sleep. He hoped that tomorrow would be a better day, somehow.

Arm: I finally killed someone off! Man, I was beginning to wonder when I was going to do that.

Leg: Let me tell you now, I had no part in writing this chapter. So flame Arm for it.

Arm: Oh, be quiet, you were the one who came up with the idea. Anyway, please read and review, my friends! Well, you may not really be my friends, but anyone who reviews seems like a friend to me.

Leg: You're really out of it. 

Arm: I know…. Scary, isn't it?

Leg: Duh. 


	4. Untitled

Leg: Is this

Leg: Is this... Is this chapter three? OMG! 

Arm: -_-'' Ignore her. We're on a mission to type up everything we need to type up before our skool starts. Which is the 29th of August, our first year anniversary on FFN as authors. Oi... I hate timing. 

Leg: ^_^. Oh well. It's chapter three! Have fun! Oh yeah, something happens, then something else happens, and-- Oh, I'll just let you figure it out on your own. Arm's afraid that we got Dib and Zim out of character, but oh well… And we simply do not own IZ… I wish we did though…

A Strange Twist of Fate: Chapter Three: Untitled

Zim woke up the next morning, and felt as if something wasn't right. He searched his home base for intruders, and found nothing. Sighing, Zim figured that it was just his imagination and got ready for skool. How he despised skool. If he were still invading the Earth, that would be the first thing he would have destroyed. Well, maybe he could still do that…

Zim smiled at the thought of no skool, but stopped when he realized that it would most likely come back, twice as worse. Zim shook his head and grabbed his disguise. He always put it on last, but sometimes that caused problems, because Gir could find it and mess with it. 

While walking to skool, Zim could still feel as if something wasn't right. He wanted to shake the feeling off, but something told him that that wasn't going to happen. As he was turning the corner, he could hear a pair of girl's talking in the distance. 

"Did you hear? Professor Membrane hit his own daughter last night!" one of them said excitedly.

Her friend with light blue hair looked at her strangely. "Why are you so happy about that? Dib must be feeling all alone right now… The only person who ever pretended to give a shit about him is gone, his only sister, his only family. Don't you feel the least bit sad about it?" 

"Yeah, but still… It's just weird that her own father was the one to hit her!" the other replied.

Zim nearly stopped walking at what he had over heard. By the way the one girl with blue hair was talking, Gaz was dead. Sure, he didn't really care that much about her, but she was the closest person do Dib, as far as he knew. Dib would most likely be the most depressed person in the world right now because of this turn of events. Zim wanted to go and talk to Dib, to make sure that he was all right, but he knew that he couldn't skip skool, it was still his first week back. 

Zim continued walking to skool, his heart heavy with worry. He just hoped that Dib didn't decide to do something stupid. He still had to confess his feelings for him, and he didn't want to do so to a dead body. The thought that Professor Membrane was the one who had killed Gaz made him even more worried. Zim sighed, he knew that today was going to be a long day at skool.

Dib woke up at around ten that morning. He looked at the time and sighed. At least his father knew to leave him alone this morning. Dib sneered at the thought of his father. He was going to move out as soon as he possibly could, there was just no way he was going to live in the same house as that murderer. 

What was his dad thinking when he expected Dib to forgive him for killing his own sister anyway? If his father wasn't, well, his father, he would have done something horrible to him. Dib felt as if he didn't have a family now, because of his father. There was just no way he was ever going to forgive his father for this.

Dib sighed again and finally got out of his bed. He was still dressed in the clothes he had worn last night, so he didn't bother getting changed. He walked out of his room, depressed about his sister and angry at his father. That wasn't a very good combination for him. If one other bad thing happened to him, he would either break down crying or kill someone. He silently wished he had some kind of friend he could talk to about this.

He nearly fell down the stairs, but he didn't seem to care. He grabbed a box of cereal off of the refrigerator, and remembered all the times he had asked Gaz if she had finished his cereal. This only saddened him more, but he poured himself a bowl anyway. He ate in silence, and hoped that his father had gotten the hint last night and left to do something, as if nothing had happened. That was what he had done the day after his mother died. It was like his father felt bad, but it was only for a day, and then he was back to normal.

Dib sat down at his computer once he was done. He even looked through his old files on Zim and made some alternations to them in order to keep his mind off of his sister's untimely death. But he was too depressed to even manage that little task. He briefly wondered what the kids at skool were saying about all this. They probably didn't even realize that he was gone, most likely. 

He was thrown out of his thoughts when the doorbell rang. He figured that it would be one of those people coming around to say, "I'm so sorry," about what had happened to him. Screw them and their sorry's, they wouldn't make a difference, they wouldn't bring Gaz back. Sorry was the only thing his father said when he should have been helping Gaz. Sorry meant nothing to him now. But out of plain curiosity as to whom it was on the other side of the door made Dib get up and answer it. It was a good thing he did too, because it was Zim who was on the other side of it. 

"Hey, why weren't you at skool today?" Zim asked. He had decided to play dumb, to hear the truth from Dib and not those rumors he had been hearing all day. 

Dib looked at him as if he didn't realize he was there, then suddenly shook his head and moved out of the way to let Zim in. "What, were you deaf all day or something? I bet that the whole damn skool was talking about it," Dib stated as he shut the door behind Zim. 

"You're right, they were, but I wanted to hear the truth from you." There seemed to be no emotion in Zim's voice as he said that, but Dib could hear the slight worry in it. Dib studied Zim's facial expression for a bit. "Is what they're saying true, Dib?" Zim asked quietly, but sternly.

"It depends on what they were saying," Dib replied as he looked off to the side. Please, just leave me alone, Zim; just let me think of this in peace. I don't want to drag you into this. 

Zim sighed, he really didn't want to say this, because he didn't want to upset Dib and further than he must have been at the moment. "They are saying that your own father hit Gaz last night, and killed her." 

"He's not my father," Dib stated harshly as he sat down on the couch. "He's just someone who had to keep Gaz and I in his custody. But yes, he was the one who killed my sister last night."

Zim was shocked to hear such hatred from Dib. It sounded as if he had completely disowned his father. Zim watched as Dib's anger melted away and became saddened. 

"She shouldn't have died, though. She was just too young to go the way our mother did. Carelessness was what killed her. If only he had been more careful, had paid attention to what he was doing, it could have been avoided, and I'd still have a sister to call family," Dib mumbled to himself as he placed his head in his hands.

Zim had no idea what to do or say to cheer Dib up. His body went on autopilot though, and he sat down next to Dib. Something inside of him was screaming at him, telling what he should do next to help cheer up Dib, but he had no idea on how he should do so. Finally, he put a tentative hand on Dib's shoulder. "I have no idea what to tell you, Dib, except for the fact that I'm sor—" 

"Don't say it! Do NOT say you're sorry!" Dib ordered. "_He_ said sorry when he should have done something to help," Dib mumbled, his tears now becoming evident. 

Zim decided to do as he was asked. He didn't even have to ask who "he" was, he knew he was Membrane, it just had to be. He put an arm around Dib's shoulders without thinking. "It'll be all right, you just have to give it time," Zim heard himself whisper.

"How the hell do you know? My only sister is gone, and I'm stuck living with _him_ until I can get out of here! My life is a living hell at the moment! I wish…I wish I just had someone who I could…" Dib stopped in mid-sentence as he looked up at Zim. He could see that Zim truly wanted to help him, that he cared for him. Dib threw himself at Zim and cried onto his shoulder.

Zim slowly wrapped his arms around Dib's slender body. He tried his best to remember how humans comforted each other. Man, why was this suddenly so hard to do? All he wanted to do was help Dib, but it was so hard. He felt tears of frustration make their way to his eyes. 

"It's even worse because I don't have any friends who I can go to, no one cares about me enough…. Except…except for you…" Dib mumbled into his shoulder. Dib pulled himself out of Zim's arms and wiped away his tears. Dib managed a halfhearted laugh at that. "It's funny, I never thought that my rival would be the only one who would be here, trying to comfort me…"

"What if I told you that I didn't want to be your rival anymore?" Zim asked quietly.

"Why wouldn't you? You really seemed to hate me, and I…well, I can't say this now, but I used to hate you…" Dib stated. 

"I never really hated you, Dib, even in the beginning."

"How could you _not_ hate me? I always got in your way!" 

"If you had never done so, Dib, I wouldn't have grown so used to Earth, and I would have invaded it in less than a year," Zim told him. 

"Who says?" Dib asked with a hint of a smile. He poked a finger at Zim. "When you first arrived here you couldn't make heads or tails of life here on Earth," Dib teased.

"So, I learned how to live here, didn't I?" Zim countered. His mood suddenly grew serious. He reached out and traced Dib's cheek with his hand. "I missed you so much while I was gone, Dib…. I don't think I could stand being without you, so don't go thinking about doing anything to yourself, like that one time over a year ago," Zim said softly.

Dib was shocked at the action and softly spoken words. He leaned into the touch. "I…I don't think I could stand being out with you either, Zim…. When you were gone, I tried killing myself, again and again, but I never was able to do so. I felt so empty inside…" (AN: Moving into Cliché land, where we…) Dib admitted. 

"You were the only person who noticed me, Zim, and I know deep down that besides Gaz," he started, choking just slightly with tears, "you are the only person who would have stopped me from jumping off of that bridge. Membrane wouldn't have cared," Dib stated.

"You really think that, Dib?" Zim asked. He didn't know why, the question could—and most likely would—depress Dib even more. Dib just looked at him and nodded. 

"I know he wouldn't care if I were to suddenly fall off the face of the Earth… But don't worry Zim, I'm not going anywhere any time soon, not when I love you too much to go anywhere," Dib said, letting it slip without thinking. (Arm: _ I TOLD you all I had writer's block! Now leave me alone about how dangerously sappy this is!!!) 

Zim couldn't believe his ears. "You…you love me?" Zim managed to ask. Dib visibly relaxed a bit when he realized that Zim was no where near disgusted with him…for now.

"Yes," Dib answered cautiously. "I didn't mean to let it slip out like that, though. I'd completely understand if you didn't feel the same way, but—" Dib began to ramble, but Zim silenced him with a kiss. (Arm: Didn't I state that I moved into cliché land?) Dib made a small surprised squeak, but he kissed back.

From somewhere not too far from them, a figure stood. The figure had been hidden in the shadows for a long time, and finally decided to leave and go down to his lab. He couldn't believe it, his son hated him, and his son was gay. He could live with the latter; it was the former that he would like to change. Membrane grabbed a few of his things and began to work. He needed to get his mind off of things for a while. 

Zim and Dib had stopped kissing a few moments after Membrane had left. Dib looked at Zim with wide eyes. He almost couldn't believe that what had just happened, just happened. "I feel the same way about you, Dib…" Zim mumbled softly, his lips brushing against Dib's since he hadn't moved that far from him. 

Dib blushed lightly at that. At first he was ecstatically happy, but then saddened somewhat when he thought of what Gaz had said to him sometime ago. He chuckled quietly to himself at the memory. "If Gaz had just seen what we just did, she would have been like, 'Well it's about time,'" Dib said in response to Zim's confused expression.

"What do you mean?" Zim asked, still a little confused. 

"She expected us to be doing this," Dib said as he kissed Zim, catching Zim off guard for once. Zim regained control of the situation. He was soon lightly pushing Dib down on the couch in their newly started make out session. Zim was so into what he was doing that he didn't even hear the beep of an incoming transmission and the screen popped out from his "book bag." 

"Zim! Why we never—!" Red began to say as the…uh…"festivities," going on.

Zim's eyes flew open and he let go of Dib in his panic. "My Tallest! I can explain—" Zim began, but Purple silenced him.

"There's no need to explain, Zim, we saw everything," Purple said once he knew he could talk. Zim's fear and dread became more and more evident as the moment past by. "And, quite frankly, we are both shocked and appalled at the…er…_display_ you have given us. Not ever in the history of Irken kind has this happened after The Law had been established. A _top_ Invader like yourself knows the rules of being an Invader knows the law, and you've broken it," Purple continued. 

"My Tallest, maybe we should give Zim a chance to redeem himself—" another Irken began.

"We already _gave_ him another chance, remember Jazz?" Red asked the blue-eyed Irken. 

Dib watched as Jazz looked down at the ground at that, and Zim seemed to understand what they were talking about as well. He figured that the red and purple Irkens were The Tallest, as Zim and Jazz referred to them. He was trying to take all this in. There was just so much of this he didn't understand.

"Please, I beg of you my Tallest, do not punish me for my mistakes, give me another chance," Zim begged. He didn't want to see so weak in front of Dib, but his life was on the line, and he'd do anything right now to keep it.

"We just can't do that Zim. You were caught doing un-Irkly things, and I also have a feeling that you were lying to us about invading Earth. You know what that we have the power to kill you for that," Red stated with little remorse.

"You can't just kill him without proving that he lied to you first!" Jazz spoke up again. 

"Jazz! Just stay out of this!" Zim ordered.

Dib was getting more and more confused by the minute, but he was beginning to understand how Zim's race worked a little better as well. That other Irken, Jazz, must be Zim's friend, and he most likely didn't want his friend to die. Dib could see both the fear for Zim's life and determination to save it in Jazz's eyes. 

"What do you know about Zim's true intentions on Earth, Jazz?" Red asked.

"I don't know what his true intentions are on Earth, Red," Jazz lied unflinchingly. He wasn't going to show his fear now, and Dib could tell.

"Are you sure, soldier, that Zim did not say that he only wanted to live on Earth, not invade it?" Purple asked.

'I'm positive, Sirs, that Zim did _not_ tell m anything of that sort," Jazz replied. Dib glanced at Zim and saw the relieved look on his face.

Red and Purple studied Jazz for a little while longer before saying, "We believe you soldier," to Jazz when they were convinced. They both turned to Zim.

"My Tallest, before you pass judgment on me, I—" Zim was cut short once again.

"Zim, tell us the truth, did you or did you not fall for that human next to you?" Red asked.

"I did," Zim answered after a moment of giving Red and Purple a desperate look.

"Is he the reason why you wanted to invader Earth so badly?" Purple continued. Zim didn't answer right away; there were a lot of reasons why he wanted to "invade" Earth so badly. "Zim," Purple said warningly.

"Yes and no," Zim finally replied. 

"Is it possible, Zim, that you and that human were together before you even came back to Irk?" 

"No…though…though I wanted to be," Zim stated bravely. 

Red and Purple both raised an eyebrow at that. They turned to each other and nodded. "Zim, since you have answered all the questions we had wanted to ask, we have come up with a suitable punishment for you," Purple stated.

"Yes, you are basically banished, _again_, but this time, you are not allowed to contact _anyone_ from Irk unless they have gotten our permission to contact you. We will send what little belongings you have left here to your home on Earth. This means no coming back to try to be apart of another operation you end up hearing about and 'quitting' banishment again," Red stated with a disguised smile. 

Zim flushed at the memory, but he nodded in understanding. And with that, the transmission ended. Dib had so many questions he wanted to ask, but he knew better not to. 

"I can't believe they found me out already… They didn't even warn me that they were going to contact me today," Zim whispered in shock. "And now I'm worried…. If they find out that Jazz was lying to him…" Zim shuddered. "I don't want that to happen to my bestfriend…"

Dib hugged Zim. "It'll be alright, Zim. If you can get away with lying to them, then Jazz can too," Dib reassured him.

"I don't know, Jazz is a horrible liar most of the time…" Zim said quietly.

"Trust me, they said they believed him, didn't they?" Dib asked. He kissed Zim lightly on the lips in hopes that it would somehow take his mind off of what had just happened. 

"Yeah… Look, Dib, I have to go," Zim stated sadly, slowly getting off of the couch. "Are you going to go to skool tomorrow?" Zim asked as Dib followed him to the door.

"I'll be there. Bye, Zim," Dib said as he watched Zim walk out of the door and down the street. He sighed and hoped that Zim would be all right.

A little while later, Dib was sitting down at his computer when his dad walked out from his lab. "Is he gone?" Membrane asked from behind him. Dib jumped about fifty feet in the air. He could tell that his father was not happy, but he didn't care.

"Is _who_ gone, Membrane?" Dib asked with feigned innocence. He didn't even feel like calling him dad anymore. 

"Zim? The green kid that was here. And don't play dumb with me, Dib, I know he was here. I watched you two for a while. You seem _very_ close," Membrane stated coolly.

"You were _spying_ on me?" Dib asked harshly. "That's low, Membrane, really low."

Membrane was getting more and more frustrated with the fact that Dib kept calling him by his name than dad. He couldn't say he didn't blame the boy, but still…. "I know, but I saw enough to realize why my son never had any girlfriends," he stated.

Dib finally turned to face him. "So you know about that? It's about time you finally noticed," Dib stated. The next thing Dib knew was his father's hand flying through the air and slapping him across the face.

"Don't you _ever_ get smart with me again," Membrane ordered, completely ignoring the death glare he was receiving from Dib.

"Wow, that's the first time I ever saw you act like a father," Dib told him. He expected another slap at that, but he didn't get it.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Membrane said defensively.

"Yeah fuckin' right, _dad_," Dib spat out as if it was something very nasty he didn't like. "I don't even remember a time when you gave a damn about Gaz or me after mom died. I don't even know if I should be calling you 'dad' anymore," Dib stated. His father was working on his last nerves. "I sometimes wish you weren't my father," Dib said finally, and his statement was met with another slap, but this time he was ready for it.

Membrane ordered Dib to do something, and Dib just laughed at it. "I'm _grounded_? I don't think so. I don't have to listen to you, you don't control my life and you never have! I hate to burst your bubble."

"I am your father and as long as you live under this roof, you _will_ respect me," Membrane continued.

Dib glared at him and turned from his father. "You may be my father by blood, but I have _never_ thought of you as that. You were just the man who Gaz and I would call dad, but you never were him. Ever since mom died, _I_ was the one who took care of Gaz. _I _was the one to go out to the store and buy the food. _I _haveacted more like a father since I was four and a half than _you_ have your whole goddamned life!" Dib yelled at his father.

Membrane blinked in surprise, then sank to couch. Was his son right? Was he really that bad of a father? He couldn't believe it. He was so wrapped up into his work that he didn't even notice his family. Dib was right, he had been a horrible father.

"Membrane, just to let you know, I don't care about what you think of Zim and I being together. I _wanted_ to tell you I was gay, but you were always too busy to talk to me so I just gave up on telling you at all. You are possibly the only father in existence that would say he was too busy to talk to his own son for every day of an entire month, _dad_, you should be proud of yourself," Dib said as he left the room to go to his room. He needed to get away from his father for a while.

Membrane watched his soon leave with a heavy heart. His own son hated him. _Hated_ him. He really was a bad father, and he knew he was going to have to make up for lost time. Though, something inside of him told him that he was too late to try again, and that Dib would never forgive him for what he had done.

Arm: I would like to note that I _know_ everyone is slightly or more than slightly out of character, and that Jazz has a bigger part in this fic.

Leg: I still can't believe you brought him back for this fic.

Arm: I liked him, okay? And anyway, please review. ^_^ It would make me tremendously happy since skool started for us again. 


	5. Untitled as Well. ::sighs::

Leg: Is this

Leg: Chapter four! Someone start a party! We ACTUALLY updated this again!

Arm: Leg, sometimes you worry me, you know that?

Leg: I know… ::grins:: Well, you should all know we don't own the IZ cast. 

A Strange Twist of Fate: Chapter Four: 

Jazz sighed as he sat down at his computer. He opened up a file he had told himself that he'd never touch again after he had finished it all those months ago. 

"We're sorry, Jazz, but we had to punish him for what he did!" Red said as he walked up to him from behind.

"He broke the law, Jazz. Hell, we know he was lying to us, but we let him off easy," Purple stated as he walked up next to Red.

"I know he broke the law, okay?" Jazz said moodily as he scanned the file one last time. He had written it when Zim had returned to Irk. It was sort of like a journal entry, to him. 

"We know you're upset about Zim finding someone else, Jazz," Red began, "but don't take your anger out on us."

"Look, _Red_, I knew from day one that Zim would never love me, okay? So quit it with your pity party and go somewhere else," Jazz demanded quietly.

"You _knew_ from day one that Zim would never feel the same for you? How come?" Purple asked. 

"I knew that he only saw me as a friend. Plus," Jazz began, remembering a small little detail. "I never got the chance to develop anything other than friendship with him because the two of you had to banish him. Not once, but twice," Jazz said as he tried to read his file. When were the Tallest going to get the hint and leave him alone?

"Oh, so it's _our_ fault that you never got the nerve to Zim your feelings for him?" Red asked cynically. 

Jazz sighed and put his head in his hands, as if to keep the words from his ears. "No," Jazz answered quietly.

"No? It's not our fault?" Purple asked. "We tried setting you two up, remember?" he continued.

"Yeah, I remember it vividly," Jazz replied. "And I appreciated your efforts, but I knew Zim was never meant for me," Jazz stated.

"Oh, how's that so?" Purple inquired.

"Because I knew that Zim would never be truly happy with me, even when he first landed on Earth a little more than five years ago, after he met Dib," Jazz said slowly.

"Was Dib the human Zim was—" Red began before Jade cut him off with a nod.

"Dib was the only human who saw through Zim's disguises. They were big time rivals, and then, one night, they both changed. Dib because depressed, and Zim grew used to Earth, and knew, deep inside of himself, that he was falling for Dib, no matter how much he had hated to admit it," Jazz explained.

"How do you know all of this, Jazz?" Purple asked.

"Because Zim told me," Jazz answered. "And now, if you'll let me, I want to tell Zim something I should have told him since the beginning," Jazz said as he headed for the galactic communicator.

"Why bother? You know he doesn't feel the same," Red pointed out.

"I owe this to myself. I helped him decide to go back to Earth. Plus, Zim should know," Jazz said as he punched in Zim's line. 

Zim was sitting down at his lab, trying to get over what had happened today, both good and bad, when his communicator went off and told him he had an incoming message. He blinked in surprise when he saw Jazz. "Jazz!" he stated in a hushed voice once he got over his shock. "What are you doing? You know I'm not allowed to contact anyone on Irk!"

"It's okay, I got permission from the Tallest to contact you…. Look, Zim, I need to tell you this before I never get the chance to again. I'm sending you a copy of a file I wrote when you were back on Irk for those few days or so. It should explain everything," Jazz told him.

"I don't understand, Jazz, what does the file say that I don't already know about you?" Zim asked, sounding a little hurt.

"It's only this one thing I've kept from you, Zim, but it's a huge secret," Jazz said as he looked off to the side. He needed to get control of his growing emotions. 

"What is it, then?" Zim asked, getting slightly impatient. 

"I love you," Jazz forced out in a voice barely above a whisper.

Zim stared at the screen blankly before the words finally absorbed in his brain. "You _what_?" Zim asked finally.

"Damnit, Zim you heard what I said," Jazz replied.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner, Jazz?" Zim asked, now concerned for his friend.

"Because I knew you and Dib were perfect for one another," Jazz replied. "Look, Zim, I'm not hurt at all about what I saw today. Actually, I'm quite proud of you for telling Dib your feelings for him. You've grown so much, Zim, and I was lucky to be your bestfriend. I'll talk to you later, if the Tallest will let me do so again," Jazz said with a sad smile.

"Okay… Well, good bye, Jazz…" Zim said slowly, unsure of how he should be acting.

"Bye," Jazz repeated as he turned off the communicator. He turned to Red and Purple and rolled his eyes. Of _course_ they would be listening in…. He felt better now, though, since he admitted his feelings too Zim. And whatever he didn't cover, well, that file would explain all to Zim for him.

Zim looked at the copy of the file Jazz had sent him. He was still shocked at the fact that Jazz loved him. His bestfriend told him something he had never expected to hear.

Zim opened up the file and read it with interest. He couldn't believe what he was reading, but he knew it was all true. He suddenly understood all of the little things Jazz had done, and a few other things finally made sense to him.

Then his shock went away, and Zim began to feel guilty. He couldn't even tell his bestfriend was in love with him, and not only that, but he could have put Jazz down nicely like he would have liked, instead of showing Jazz that he was not interested without meaning to. He could tell Jazz was hurt, though, there was just no way he couldn't be. Zim wanted to make it up to his friend. He just wished there was something he could do.

Zim finished the file and smiled. Jazz had let him go and he didn't regret it. Jazz was always behind Zim's actions almost one hundred percent, and he always led Zim in the right direction. Zim was going to miss their usual conversations whenever they had the spare time. Zim sighed as he went to work on his next week's homework. There had to be a way to keep in touch with Jazz…

Dib sat down on his bed and looked at his things. He was moving out, but there was still the question as to _where_ he was going to move. There was just no way he was going to stay here. He knew he was able to take care of himself, he had done so since he was four. 

Dib sighed as he got up and sat down in his computer chair. There was no place he could go without having to pay. Wait a minute, he could stay at Zim's place! He was beginning to think of how he would ask Zim if he could just as there was a knock on the door. He groaned, he knew whom it was before he even got up. He decided to not even get up and answer it.

"Dib, I know you're in there!" Membrane stated through the door. "Look, I know nothing I can say will make you trust me again, but we need to talk," Membrane continued.

Dib could hear the urgency in Membrane's voice, but he was still upset with his father. "Go away," Dib growled. He listened for his father to leave his door.

Dib sighed. His father really wanted to speak with him, but he wasn't going to give Membrane the chance to, yet. He looked down at his packed stuff and sighed once again. Dib wasn't being rational again, and he knew it. Maybe he should give Membrane a week before deciding to move out. That would also give him time to think about everything.

Dib picked up something off of the floor. It was a picture of Gaz and his mom. He felt tears forming in his eyes. They looked so much a like. Their mother was a video-game designer, probably what Gaz would have been, if her life hadn't been cut so damn short.

__

It's okay, Dib, a small voice whispered in his ear.

The picture and its frame fell to the ground, breaking the glass that was apart of it. His hands shook as he glanced all around the room.

You have to forgive Dad, Dib.

"G-Gaz?" Dib asked once he found his voice. His throat suddenly became very dry, and thoughts along the lines of "This is crazy! I can't be hearing Gaz, she's dead!" ran through his head.

__

Look, Dib, I don't have much time, so I want you to listen to me and listen good. I had to die in order to help fate along.

Dib could feel tears slide down his face. He wondered for a brief moment if he was crazy, but something reassured him that he wasn't. "Wh…What do you mean?" Dib asked quietly.

Everything will be okay. Mom and I are fine, but you need to talk to Dad and forgive him for hitting me. It was all my fault he didn't see me, really. But in order for you and Zim to get actually admit your feelings for one another, something devastating had to happen to someone very close to either of you. By some strange twist of fate, I was chosen. 

Dib tried to understand. He needed to ask her _why_ something devastating had to happen. 

Oh, that's simple, really. You two would have been too happy with just being friends. You would have confessed, eventually, but by then it would have been too late for you to be together. 

Dib nodded in semi-understanding and smiled somewhat.

Dib, I have to go now. Remember, stay away from my games.

That made his smile even wider, but that was when Dib woke up from his dream. Dib blinked confusedly. It was dark in his room. He looked around his room; all of his things were still packed. Dib figured he must have fallen asleep while packing. 

He thought back to the dream. Did he really hear Gaz? Should he listen to what he had been told to do in his dream? It was really strange. The dream seemed so real, almost _too_ real, to be just a dream.

Well, dream or not, he was going to do as Gaz told him to do. He got off his bed and walked out of his room, being careful not to knock into anything. He glanced at the clock next to his bed, it was still fairly early. Membrane must still be shooting his show. Dib sighed. How was his father going to act around him now that that he thought Dib hated him?

Dib figured he'd worry about that later. Right now, he was starving. He decided he should make something simple so he wouldn't have to clean a mess of dishes. He picked something up and made it. Dib thought back to…whatever that whole thing with Gaz was. If something like that hadn't happened, he and Zim wouldn't have gotten together? That didn't compute with him. If he and Zim cared so much about one another, he thought with a smile, then they should have gotten together eventually. 

Something inside of him argued against that. Logically, what Gaz had "told," him could have happened, but what he thought was logical as well. That small part argued, saying that he would have never let it slip like that if he was never that upset, and that Zim would have never confessed at all, for fear of his life.

Dib shook his head and ate his dinner. He could dwell on this later.

"Oh, you're still here," a voice said from behind him, making Dib nearly choke on his food. "I thought you would have run away by now."

"Well, maybe I wanted to eat first," Dib replied. He tried to hide the hatred that he still felt, so that he wouldn't suddenly jump on his father's case like he had done earlier.

"Look, I know I was wrong. I've been wrong about how to raise a family since your mother died," Membrane said as h sat down across from Dib. He tried to make eye contact with his son, but Dib looked everywhere else but at him.

"So you've finally realized that? Good for you," Dib stated sarcastically.

"I can't believe I've been so wrapped up in my work that I couldn't see how much you and Gaz grew. Just this morning I realized how much Gaz was like your mother," Membrane admitted.

"Who do I remind you of, then?" Dib asked, surprised at himself that he had asked.

Membrane shook his head. "Most people would think I'd say me, but you and I are nothing alike, besides the fact we love science," Membrane stated. "Our interests are different, and we only slightly act the same every once in a while, but we are never truly alike."

"Yeah, I noticed that as well," Dib stated quietly.

"Damnit, I wish I could make up for all the lost years, Dib, to change the way I had acted. I _never_ wanted to become the one thing my own son despised the most. I know you most likely could care less, but I had to let you know," Membrane said as he got out of the chair and headed out of the kitchen.

"Dad, wait," Dib heard himself say without thinking about saying it at all.

Membrane stopped moving at the word "dad." He looked back at his son, who turned and finally made eye contact with him. Membrane could see the conflicting emotions making their battle through Dib's eyes. "Yes, Dib?" he asked cautiously.

"I…I just couldn't…" Dib had no idea what to say.

"Oh, and as for you and Zim, I don't care what the two of you do when I'm not around, okay?" Membrane asked.

Dib nearly broke out into a wide smile. His father accepted his relationship! Dib nodded to his father. "We'll try not to get too close when you're around," Dib heard himself say.

Membrane smiled (well, you couldn't really tell by just looking at him, but he was) at his son and left to go to work. Dib sighed. That went easier than he thought it would….

Zim was _dying_ to contact Jazz, to as him every question he wanted to know the answer to. He couldn't though. Man, this was driving him crazy. He needed to speak with someone other than Gir.

Zim looked at the time. He told himself it wasn't so late, but the second he did so, he yawned. Zim got up and stretched. He wanted to talk to someone intelligent, someone who wasn't Irken. Well, he could contact Dib, but he wasn't sure if Dib was awake at the moment. They _did_ have skool tomorrow, after all.

"Oh shit," Zim whispered to himself. "Man, what are we going to do about skool? Dib and I can't be hanging onto another like we were earlier!" Zim continued.

Zim cursed in a mixture of English and Irken. They didn't even think about this. And the whole skool pretty much thought they hated each other.

Zim shook his head. He needed to think clearly. He needed some fresh air. Putting his disguise on as quickly as he could, Zim headed outside and decided to go on a walk. This was a practice he always found relaxing. He let his feet move him without thinking of where he was going. 

How were they going to act during skool? They most definitely couldn't act like a couple, Zim knew that some people considered two males being together "wrong," not considering the fact of how he and Dib treated each other when they met again. The skool was expecting them to be enemies. Did that mean they'll have to insult each other and sneak around?

Zim's brown furrowed. He would hate to act like that. He continued to look at the ground, not paying attention to where he was going. He didn't even look up until he bumped into someone.

"Excuse me," he and the other person said at the same time. Zim recognized the voice. He looked up to see that it was Carol. 

"Oh, hey Zim," she said with a small smile.

"Hey."

"Were you going to Dib's house?" Carol asked.

Zim briefly panicked. "N-No, why would you think that?" he stammered.

"Oh, only because you were about to turn onto his street…. Look, Zim, exactly how close are you to Dib really?" she continued.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Oh, stop bull shittin' Zim, I saw how worried about him you were when you kept hearing all those rumors about Gaz."

"You're point?"

"My point is that you wouldn't have been so worried about him if you really hated him," Carol responded coolly.

"Fine. I was worried about him, and I confronted him today as well, so don't ask," Zim ordered. 

"I take it you two are together now," Carol stated slyly.

Zim gaped at her. "What?!"

"It's true, isn't it? That you and Dib have this hidden fling going on?" Carol asked him.

"Where did you hear that?" Zim asked.

"Don't you _know_? Everyone who was in Miss Bitters' class with you two thinks you are secretly in love," Carol explained. She watched as Zim growled something to himself. "Oh, I'm okay with it if you two really are. But you shouldn't keep an act, because it will eventually hurt both of you," Carol told him.

"Really?" Zim asked, forgetting that he was supposed to not care about what she was telling him.

"Yeah. Many relationships inside the high skool have crumbled because the two people kept an act. You really shouldn't care what other people think of who you're with, either," she continued.

"I'll…keep that in mind," Zim told her with a small smile. 

"But it is true, right?" Carol asked. "I mean, you and Dib _are_ together."

Zim nodded slightly, going against his first initial reaction. She smiled back at him, suppressed the urge to go "Awww," and waved as she walked off into another direction. 

Zim thought about what Carol had said. Was what she said true? That if he and Dib were to keep an act, that their relationship (if you will) will crumble? Something inside of him thoroughly believed what she said. An act could seem so real that they could easily ruin their relationship. 

Zim sighed. He didn't know what Dib wanted. He would have to talk to him about this, but it was late, and Zim knew better than to walk in the Membrane residence right now. Something told him that things with Membrane and Dib were on uneven ground. He knew they needed some time to straighten things out a little.

Zim headed home, knowing that he should get some rest. Today had been a very eventful day…he and Dib got together, Zim was banished again, and found out that his bestfriend for years was in love with him, and they _still_ had to put up with skool.

Zim just hoped that tomorrow would somehow go the way he wanted it to. Dib, too, was thinking the same thing, and he hoped that somehow, he would understand things better. The two went to sleep that night, somewhat more at ease than they ever had for the past year, though, they were still a little restless. After all, who wouldn't be when they just confessed their love for someone who was sure to hate them for it? 

Arm: ::winces:: It seems…off…

Leg: ::nods:: Oh well. That's the end of chapter four… Be glad we actually came up with one… Chapter five, however, should take a longer time, since there's something about this chapter that I don't like…

Arm: Yeah… Oh well! Time to type up that special tie in! ::covers her mouth:: Oops… I didn't mean to let that slip…

Leg: ::sighs and rolls her eyes at Arm:: Please review. It would make us very, very happy. 


	6. Well...no chapter title, but it is the l...

A/N: Howdy y'all! Finally, I bet you're thinkin', chapter five has arrived! And arrived it has! The reason why this took so long was NOT writer's block, but because of the fact I had two ideas for this chapter, wrote both of them out, and decided which one I liked more. And, naturally, I chose the more angst-y one… Though, it's not really, if you think 'bout it. I usually stay in Zim's POV for this one.

Why? I have NO idea! I just like writing in Third Person limited…All right, enough of my drivel, go read! Oh, BTW, this is the ::sigh:: last chapter to A Strange Twist of Fate. Consider me finishing it as a Christmas present to you all! 

A Strange Twist of Fate: Chapter Five 

"Dib, are you awake?" Membrane asked as he knocked on the door lightly. He had forgotten to tell his son something important. 

"What is it?" Dib asked as he opened the door, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he opened the door.

"I forgot to tell you…Gaz's funeral is…" Membrane trailed off as he noticed how Dib's face fell. Membrane was surprised, though, when Dib motioned him to follow as he walked back into his room.

"Already?" 

Membrane didn't know what to say to that. Dib looked up at his father. "I know it seems too soon to…." He couldn't bring himself to complete his sentence, not when Dib looked at him like that, anyway. 

"When is it?" Dib asked. "Are we putting her in the ground or cremating her?" Dib continued quietly.

"She's been cremated," Membrane replied, being just as quiet.

"_Been_?" 

Membrane nodded. "Her funeral is tomorrow…I was going to tell you this earlier, but…"

"That's okay, Dad. Thanks for letting me know. I'll call Zim and tell him I won't be in skool tomorrow," Dib stated.

"You're going to go?" Membrane asked as Dib picked up the phone.

"Why _wouldn't_ I?" Dib countered as he began to dial Zim's number. He signaled his father to be quiet. Membrane did as he was told.

"Hey Zim… No, nothing's wrong…. I just called to say that I won't be in skool tomorrow…" Dib smiled, then looked over at a photo. "My sister's funeral is…tomorrow…. Yeah, Dad just—oh, yeah, I'm not mad at him anymore… So, anyway, Gaz's funeral is tomorrow… Hold on, I'll ask," Dib placed a hand over the mouthpiece.

"Yes, he can come," Membrane answered the foreseen question. 

"How'd you know that I…?"

"Could tell."

Dib nodded, then removed his hand. "You're allowed, Zim. Get some sleep. I'll come over tomorrow and help get you ready…. I highly doubt that you would know how to dress appropriately for something like this… Whatever, Zim, just trust me on this, okay? …" Dib suddenly blushed slightly, turned away from his father, whispered something to the phone, then hung up.

"What? Can't say certain things in front of your father?" Membrane asked when Dib turned around.

Suddenly, Dib found the carpet very interesting as he shuffled his feet slightly. "Maybe…. So, when is the funeral?" Dib asked, getting off the subject.

"Around twelve. You _and_ Zim can still sleep in. Why did he want to go, anyway?" 

"Why are you suddenly taking so much interest in my life, Membrane?" Dib inquired. 

Membrane sighed; he knew his son was going to ask him that. "You know why, Dib. I was a horrible father to you and Gaz. I don't want you to hate me; though, I'll admit I'd completely understand if you did. I don't want the same thing that happened to Gaz to happen to you," he explained.

"Thanks, Dad…" Dib said, then yawned. "I should get some sleep. 'Night, Dad." 

"Night, son," Membrane replied as he walked out of his son's room, turning off the light as he did so. 

It was the next day; Zim was unusually well dressed for the occasion, much to the shock of Dib. Zim noticed the solemn looks on Dib and Membrane's faces. Of course, Zim knew why. A human funeral was much like one on Irk. 

A funeral to a human differed in one way, however. The difference was that, on Irk, a funeral could only be visited when the Tallest themselves gave you permission. On Earth, you could go as long as you were either related or close to the one whom died. Although Zim might not have fitted either category, something told him that he should go. That maybe by going, Dib would have the support he needed. 

Zim never really liked being in human affairs _like_ this. When he saw how much happier Dib seemed to be just when he walked out of his bas, however, his resolve to go hardened. He would go and take this as a learning experience. Zim could study human nature so he could fit in better with the world, since something told him he wasn't going to be leaving the planet any time soon, not that it mattered. Zim had Dib now, and he would be fine as long as he had him.

"Professor Membrane, may we speak to you?" a voice called out from behind them.

Dib's slight smiled faded, Zim noticed, when the person had spoken up.

"Ignore them, Dad. They're only going to give you more grief," Dib ordered. 

"Right, Dib. I'm already getting enough stress from reporters. I just want to be left alone right now, anyway," Membrane said as he nodded.

Zim listened to the exchange attentively. He had to fight the urge to call out to the person to just leave the Membrane family alone, especially when Dib gave him one of his looks. For some reason, Zim couldn't wait for this to be over. Dib was being unusually quiet, much to Zim's dismay. When they finally made it to the funeral service, Zim suddenly understood why.

There were more people present than he had expected. Zim remained quiet as every one greeted Membrane and Dib. One boy sat off by himself, his messy black hair sticking out more than usual. Zim watched as Dib approached the boy.

"Rick?" Dib called out softly.

The boy lifted his head. "Is…_he_ here?" Rick asked, searching the room with his eyes. 

Zim noticed the amount of animosity the boy held in his voice as he spoke. It was the same hatred Dib used to posses in his voice whenever he had mentioned his father.

Apparently, Dib knew whom Rick was talking about. "Of course Membrane's here. My father regrets what he's done," Dib stated. 

"Fat chance," Rick mumbled. "He never said so on the news."  
"Rick, he doesn't say much about anything on the news because he just wants to grieve over his loss. He loved my sister, Rick—"

"If he loved her, he wouldn't have hit her."

Zim saw Dib flinch at the tone of Rick's voice. He couldn't take it anymore; Zim walked up to Dib and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Zim…?" Dib asked, giving him a confused look. "What is it?"

"If you could…maybe explain what kind of relationship Rick had with Gaz to me, I could help you get him to understand."

"I don't need to understand _anything_, Green-boy. All I need to know is that Membrane hit his own daughter, who _happened_ to be my girlfriend!" Rick hissed.

Zim suddenly understood. He quickly thought about how he would feel if he were in Rick's place for a moment. "I know it's hard to lose the one you've obviously grown so attached to," Zim began, "but…Gaz wouldn't want you to hate her father. He didn't mean to hit her. Hell, he's probably feeling worse than you! How would _you_ feel if you had accidentally hit your daughter with a car, and ended her life?" Zim asked.

Rick glanced up at Zim. "He should have been paying more attention to the road," Rick stated.

"I agree, Rick, but it does not change things," Dib stated, being careful not to let his father hear him. "The shock of killing his own daughter has changed him. Membrane has been a way better father to me than he ever has his whole life. He learned from his biggest mistake, and he regrets it, but he can't take it back. Trust me, if Dad could, Gaz would be back here with us in a heartbeat."

"Then why doesn't he _do_ that?! Your father is a world-famous scientist, Dib!" 

"It would be hard for him to even concentrate on working the TV now, let alone one of his inventions. Plus, he still has yet to find a way to bring people back to life," Dib said.

"It is impossible to bring people back to life—no time machine or invention can change that," Zim added.

"How would you know?" Rick asked.

"Confidential," Zim replied. He would have further explained, but a weary-looking gentleman had begun to speak.

Zim and Dib stood next to each other as the man went through what Zim guessed as the funeral sermon. He didn't really pay attention to anything; he was too distracted by everyone else. The people around him were crying, wailing, or listening to the man with the utmost respect. This unnerved Zim a bit, and he felt more and more out of place the longer he was there.

Dib was silently crying to himself, and Zim wanted to do nothing more than to put an arm around his shoulders and tell him that it would be okay. He couldn't do that, though. Dib wouldn't want him to. So Zim stood, patiently waiting for it to be over so that he wouldn't have to see Dib like that anymore.

Much to Zim's relief, the man finally stopped talking and went somewhere. Dib tried to smile at Zim, but he couldn't do it. Dib threw himself into Zim's arms once more and cried.

"It's okay, Dib…" Zim heard himself whisper.

"I know, Zim…" Dib replied with a sniff. "I'm still going to miss her."

Zim really didn't know how to begin on reacting to this. He had never been surrounded by sadness like this in his entire life. So Zim did as his instincts told him and help Dib in his arms until he moved, and he didn't care who saw them like this. When Dib did move, it was a little while later, when he went to get a tissue. He said only one thing when he came back:

"Thank you, Zim, for coming back into my life."

Zim just nodded, knowing that it would be best if he were to keep his mouth shut. He would spoil the moment if he spoke. Dib smiled at Zim before turning to his father.

"Dib, over here," Membrane called out quietly. "Son, where do you want to…?"

Dib blinked, sighed, then glanced at Zim. "Dad, don't as _me_ to decide where…" he didn't continue. Zim quietly watched as Dib sat down in a chair.

"Dib, she was obviously closer to you than she was to me. I want _you_ to decide," Membrane ordered softly, kneeling next to his son. 

"Dad…I can't. Can't we just…?"

"I know where you could spread her ashes," Rick said suddenly, walking over to them.

"You do?" Membrane and Dib asked at the same time.

Zim blinked as he glanced at his boyfriend, then Rick. He had been wondering what Membrane and Dib were talking about; on Irk, cremating wasn't really an option, let alone spreading the ashes. Zim understood why Dib felt the way he did.

"Yes. She would have liked having her ashes spread around her mother's grave. Whenever Gaz and I would talk to each other, she would always something about how she was wondering what her mother would be doing right now if she were still alive," Rick elaborated, tearing up slightly.

Dib nodded. "That's right…she did say things like that whenever we were acting civil to each other."

Zim watched as Dib sighed once more and looked down at the ground. "I bet she can see Mom now, where she's at. She got her wish, huh, Rick?" Dib asked quietly, his words cracking just slightly as he spoke.

"Yeah. That's how fate works, doesn't it?" Rick joked weakly. "Well, I better get going. My parents don't even know I decided to skip skool and come here…."

"Bye, Rick," Dib murmured as the other boy left. "So what do you say, Dad? Do you think we should?" Dib asked as he turned to his father.

Membrane nodded. "Rick seemed to have been really close to your sister. I say that's where we should spread her ashes. Besides, Gazette Membrane was much like her mother, she deserves to be near her."

Zim was unsure if he should really say anything at all. He felt as if he wasn't really there, like he was just another piece of furniture and not another being. But he didn't mind it at all, considering that he was learning much more about humans now than he ever did when he tried to ignore them. Sometimes being banished was a blessing in disguise, Zim noted, just like how Gaz's untimely death could have been one too.

Soon enough, Membrane picked up the box that held Gaz's ashes, mumbling, "She was _supposed_ to be in a vase," to himself. That caused a slight stare from his son, but Membrane seemed not to notice. Zim just shook his head and told himself that he was over analyzing things again. Though, he could not shake his thoughts away like he had hoped. He would tell Dib about them once they were alone.

Zim allowed himself to smile slightly at that thought. He was no longer at the funeral service and Dib and Membrane weren't paying him much attention by this point, do he didn't feel as if it was inappropriate for him to smile. It wasn't that large of a smile; it was more of a slight curse of the lips, lips that were suddenly kissed when Zim wasn't really paying attention to anything.

Blinking slightly, Zim kissed back softly as his arms found their way around Dib's waist. "What was that for?" Zim asked once Dib let go.

Dib smirked. "You seemed so wrapped up in your thoughts that I figured you should have a little wake-up call," he said. "That, and I couldn't resist."

Zim's smile widened slightly. "I'm irresistible, am I?" he asked. "That's new… Usually people can't stand me…" 

"True… C'mon," Dib said as he grabbed Zim's hand to drag him up to where his father was.

"There you two are," Membrane stated with a slight hint of concern. "Let's go…. The lab is expecting me to be back today, but sometime…" 

"Dad, do you have to go?" Dib asked.

"Dib, it's go back or lose my job. It's just not fair. Me, a scientist who's famous, can still get fired. It's unbelievable," Membrane said as they got into the car.

"That _is_ unfair," Dib muttered. "Sometimes, Dad, I wish you weren't famous."

"Me too, son, me too…"

When they did make it back to the Membrane residence, Dib and Membrane had cheered up considerably, much to Zim's relief. Dib and Zim waved Membrane good bye before walking into the house. Suddenly, as soon as the door was closed, Dib wrapped his arms around Zim and kissed him once more.

"Dib…" Zim murmured quietly once the other boy let him use his lips for something _other_ than kissing.

"Yes, Zim?" Dib asked as he kept his arms wrapped around Zim's neck.

"Do you think it's strange that…it took us five years to realize how much we cared for each other?" Zim asked.

"No. I don't think it's strange. And I really _just_ realize it, I knew that I loved you. It just took me five long years to admit it," Dib explained.

Zim smiled again. "You know, I never would have admitted it myself if you hadn't done so first," he stated.

"We got lucky, then. I wouldn't have let it slip if I hadn't been so distressed. It's really just a strange twist of fate, I guess," Dib said, remembering his conversation he believed he really had with his sister. 

"You know, I think you're right, Dib. I just wish you didn't have to go through the pain of losing your sister…"

"I'm okay, Zim. I'll miss her, but it's not…too painful. This is going to sound strange, even from me, but I think her death gave our relationship a chance," Dib admitted. 

"You mean, her death was like a blessing in disguise?" Zim asked, his eyes widening slightly,

"Not a blessing, no… More like a…" Dib couldn't find words to describe what he was trying to say. "Well, not quite a blessing," he said finally. 

"Okay, so not quite a blessing," Zim agreed as he walked towards the couch, Dib following close behind. "But me being banished was…" he whispered.

"How so?"

"Well, I won't have to worry about being caught 'making out' with you since the Tallest won't be contacting me…. And I don't have to take over the Earth now…" Zim said.

"What about Jazz?"

Zim winces just slightly, but Dib noticed it all the same. Sighing, Zim decided to tell Dib. "Jazz will have more trouble from not being able to contact me than the other way around. You see, I found out last night that Jazz…that Jazz was in love with me," Zim said, glancing down at the floor.

"Are you serious?" Dib asked.

Nodding, Zim looked up at Dib. "He was able to tell me because he had received permission to contact me. He seems to have felt that way towards me for a while…"

"He could have kept you for himself," Dib said quietly.

"Huh?" Zim asked as he blinked. He had expected Dib to growl protectively or something of that nature. Though, he had to admit, this was way better than Dib being super protective. 

"Anyone who was willing to give up the one they loved like Jazz did because the one they loved was in love with someone ELSE is a very unique person. Jazz could have had you for himself when you returned to Irk, but he was the one who convinced you to come back to Earth, didn't he?" Dib asked.

"Yeah, he did… I'm going to miss him, though. He was like a brother to me," Zim said. 

Dib smiled softly. "We'll both have someone to miss… But I don't mind it too much, as long as…as long as I don't lose you, Zim," Dib stated.

"Dib…Humans don't live as long as Irkens do…" Zim said sadly, suddenly realizing that he wouldn't have Dib with him for the rest of his life. "You won't lose me," and it was the truth, too. Most likely, it would be the other way around. 

"How old are you now?" Dib asked, his curiosity as plain as day. He didn't even think of Zim being much older than he was. Suddenly, Dib remembered that Zim had said he'd been flying ships since before he was born. 

"Let's just say that the oldest human being is younger than I am, but when I translate my age to a human's, I'm as old as you are," Zim explained.

Dib nodded in understanding. "Could we find a way to keep me alive as long as you?" he asked. He had to ask; there was no way he wouldn't.

"Maybe… No Irken for years has had to deal with this kind of thing… There must be a way…" Zim answered. 

"We'll worry about that later," Dib said as he grinned mischievously. "Right _now_ we could be doing something _else_." Dib positioned himself on Zim's lap and kissed the alien. 

Zim gave Dib the look that looks like he was raising an eyebrow, but since Zim doesn't have any, the effect wasn't the same. "Dib…"

"Shut up," Dib ordered softly as he continued to kiss Zim. Zim did as he was told like any well-trained soldier and allowed Dib to do what he wanted, though it may not have seemed as though Dib had complete control. Zim had never felt anything like it in his life, and once it was over, he could understand why Dib had wanted to do it in the first place. 

They had done what humans called "making love."* The two were exhausted when they were finished. At least Dib had the sense to move the festivities from the couch to his room _before_ any clothes were removed, so that Membrane wouldn't suspect too much. If he hadn't, there would have been a chance that Membrane would have walked in on them. And _that_ was something Dib did not want to live to see. 

They relaxed for a while, holding each other in their arms as they did so. Zim could not have been happier, but he soon realized that he would have to leave soon. Gir would have very well destroyed half of his base by now if Zim were extremely unlucky. Sighing, Dib let go of Zim and watched his lover get dressed before getting dressed himself. 

"I love you, Zim," Dib said before he kissed Zim good-bye.

"I love you too, Dib," Zim replied once they broke apart. "You're going to be in skool _tomorrow_, right?" 

"How could I, Zim? Tomorrow's a Saturday. No skool," Dib pointed out with a grin. 

"Oh yeah, that's right. Can you come over, then?" Zim asked as he began to walk out of the door.

"I'll have to ask my dad. Bye, Zim," Dib said as he let Zim leave.

It's been a strange week, Dib thought to himself. So many surprises, so many strange twists of fate had taken place that week. But, Dib continued to muse as he watched Zim walk down the street, life's not so bad. It's not so bad after all.

*Sorry there was no graphic lemon. Though, if I hadn't promised myself NOT to let this fic go above the PG-13 rating, there sure as hell would have been one. I STILL have to write a lemon with a happy ending. It's on my Fanfics To Do list… 

What did you guys think? I don't really know my own personal opinion on it… I have this large thing called modesty, and I think everything I write isn't as good as it could be. So, flamers, this is your chance! Though, I doubt any of you flamers are smart enough to actually give me a flame that doesn't make me feel horribly more intelligent than you. If you have been an avid reader of this fanfic, and haven't reviewed AT ALL, I suggest you do so now. Please?? It'll make me a VERY happy author. ^_^;;; 


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